Share This Story!

Experts say Dunes promise to build income, help environment

When Sheboygan County rebuilt county Highway J last year, one of its problems was wetlands. To widen the road, the county needed to fill in 2.85 acres of wetland. To get permission to do that, the county had to buy something called wetland mitigation credits in northwest Wisconsin to offset the wetlands destroyed here.

Experts say Dunes promise to build income, help environment

Sheboygan County is planning to purchase the 330-acre Amsterdam Dunes property in the Town of Holland to protect the unspoiled natural area and to create a wetland mitigation bank.(Photo: Janet Weyandt/Sheboygan Press Media, Janet Weyandt/Sheboygan Press Media)

When Sheboygan County rebuilt county Highway J last year, one of its problems was wetlands.

To widen the road, the county needed to fill in 2.85 acres of wetland. To get permission to do that, the county had to buy something called wetland mitigation credits in northwest Wisconsin to offset the wetlands destroyed here.

It cost the county $142,5000.

With the purchase of the Amsterdam Dunes in the Town of Holland and the creation of a local wetland mitigation bank, Sheboygan County won't have to spend money that way anymore.

Instead, Sheboygan County will be able to sell credits to businesses, municipalities or other counties that harm existing wetlands with their own construction projects.

State law requires businesses or government entities to avoid impacting wetlands in the construction or expansion of structures, roads or other development.

When that can't be achieved, the expectation is that they will minimize the damage they do. When even that is out of reach, they must buy credits to replace every acre they destroy with 1.5 acres of new or restored wetland somewhere else.

Once the DNR approves Sheboygan County's plan, Amsterdam Dunes will be one of those places.

Banking for wetlands

Up until now, Sheboygan County, local municipalities and businesses have had to purchase wetland mitigation credits in other counties at $50,000 per credit.

The wetland mitigation bank area in Amsterdam Dunes is 53 acres, which means the county stands to take in more than $2.6 million selling credits there over time.

In addition, the county will no longer have to buy credits elsewhere, said Sheboygan County Administrator Adam Payne.

What local officials still don't know, however, is how long those 53 acres of mitigation bank will last.

"I've never run a wetland mitigation bank before," Payne said. "It's all new to us. We don't know how quickly those wetland mitigation credits will be purchased."

One of the things that has yet to be decided is exactly how much local municipalities will be charged to purchase credits in Amsterdam Dunes, Payne said.

"Will we charge the private sector the market rate and maybe charge the public sector half the market rate because those dollars are coming directly from the taxpayers from this community?" Payne said. "Those are types of policy decisions the County Board will have to make as we go forward."

Getting the OK

The lag time between Sheboygan County closing on the purchase of Amsterdam Dunes on Aug. 1 and the official opening of the wetland mitigation bank will be long.

"We're not talking a month or two," said Eric Nitschke, the Wisconsin DNR secretary's director for Southeast Wisconsin. "It could be a year or two to move through that process and get everything established to start selling credits. We're going to continue to push this as a priority."

The approval process, which involves both the DNR and the Army Corps of Engineers, includes the county's attempts to secure grants to help pay for the purchase, getting the new wetland mitigation bank plan approved and then enhancing the site to support new wetlands.

There are very specific requirements for a new mitigation bank, including what is — and used to be — a wetland.

A wetland mitigation bank has to be made up of land that isn't currently a wetland but could be converted or restored into one, Nitschke said.

Otherwise, a company destroying an acre of wetland would be buying credit for a wetland that already exists, leaving the Earth with one less acre of wetland.

"You can't take a wetland and say it's in the bank," Nitschke said. "You have to actually create the wetland. That's the unique part of Amsterdam Dunes. They have land that could potentially be converted to wetland that are not yet wetlands."

An economic positive

Amsterdam Dunes is made up of a variety of ecologically significant land types, including managed forest, shoreline and wetlands.

It also contains cropland, some of which was converted from wetland decades ago. It's those areas that will become new wetlands.

After the county gets the go-ahead from the state, workers would begin by removing invasive plant species from those areas, adding new vegetation that is appropriate for wetlands and in some cases, breaking underground drain tile that used to carry water from those farmlands.

Without them, those areas will naturally revert to their natural wetland state, Sheboygan County Planning Director Aaron Brault said.

Having a wetland mitigation bank in Sheboygan County is likely to have a positive effect on the local business community, said Dane Checolinski, director of the Sheboygan County Economic Development Cor.

"There have been at least a couple of conversations with companies in the county that have expressed an interest in using wetland credits," Checolinski said.

Having to purchase credits far away isn't a deal breaker for companies looking to build or expand, he said, but it adds a layer of complication to the process.

"People are always a little bit hesitant of the unknown," Checolinski said. "Knowing there is a local place, underneath local leadership, that can administer these credits, I think that takes away a little bit of hesitancy in the minds of local business owners."

There hasn't been a great demand for credits recently, he said, but it's not always going to be that way.

"In the last year it's come up twice," Checolinski said. "I would expect as construction begins to resume, the need for credits will increase. I think it's very exciting for the county, very exciting for businesses here. I have little doubt that over time, our county (will) be expanding once again. The need for wetland is certainly growing."

Meeting the need

At the same time, the need for wetland credits could be getting harder to meet, Nitschke said.

"There are not that many credits to be purchased for development that needs wetland mitigation credits," Nitschke said. "There are quite a few (mitigation banks) around the state but they are extremely tight for credits."

Right now, if a business or municipality needed mitigation credits and couldn't buy them, it would have to re-think its construction project.

"The Plan B is typically they'd have to work harder to avoid the wetlands on their property," Nitschke said.

The DNR is considering other alternatives, such as charging the expanding business money for credits in a mitigation bank that hasn't been established yet, and is encouraging other counties to follow Sheboygan County's lead.

"We're trying to reach out to counties and let them know that if you have the opportunity to establish a bank, what better way to keep the credits in your county," he said. "You have the ability, if a business wants to come into your county, to provide your own credits. You have a much more reliable wetland mitigation banking source."

The end result, the DNR's Nitschke said, will be publicly owned land that is usable to the public, that encourages economic development and brings in money.

"We consider this really a great project in concept in the sense that they are looking at balancing uses such as wetland mitigation banking credits, as well as opening this up to the public for passive and recreational uses and protecting the environment all at the same time," Nitschke said.

"To keep it from being developed, and protect it for the use of the citizens is absolutely a wonderful, wonderful thing."